Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
Isaiah 26:8

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Sweet Leftovers

OK - so I know you are all falling off your chairs now because I am posting two days in a row, but don't be shocked. I am loving our week at home and enjoy sharing it here with you. Today, I wanted to share my great idea (I am quite certain I am not the first to do this, but it is the first time I have done it quite to this extent!)

In spite of the fact that my children did not get baskets full of candy from us on Easter morning, there still seemed to be lots in the house (thanks to loving grandmas!) So...today I had my older boys help me sort the loot. Fruity candy went into the candy jar to go in lunch boxes one piece at a time. All chocolate got unwrapped and tossed into a bowl. Then we chopped and cut it up (even the four inch crispy bunny!) and used the chocolaty pile instead of chocolate chips in our favorite cookie recipe. The results were sweet. Sweet! I also remembered that I had a partial half-gallon of vanilla ice cream (Edy's Slow Churned) in the freezer, so I made four ice cream sandwiches. Those will go with a meal tonight to friends from church who just had a baby. Fun!

It makes me giddy to take something of which I'd rather not have in my house and turn it into
a) a fun project and
b) a tasty treat

In Season

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. ~Sam Keen

Then followed that beautiful season... Summer.... Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by. ~Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle

It’s a cruel season that makes you get ready for bed while it’s light out. ~Bill Watterson

Sarah J Hale

The good, the true, the tender; these form the wealth of home.

Baker's Dozen: Summer nights

Baseball on TV

Bikeride to get ice-cream

Board games at the picnic table

Catch fireflies

Fireworks off the dock

Ice cream and popcorn for supper

Late-night swim with Dad

Long walks to nowhere in particular

Movies and popcorn (up past bedtime!)

Roast Marshmallows for S'mores

Sleeping bags on the screenporch

Soccer in the yard

Tent in the back yard

A word from my friend Jane

Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn--that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness--that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.

C.S. Lewis

You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.

Twelve Items or Less: Recipe of the week Sunshine in a Glass

3 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup boiling water

3 cups lemon juice (about 16 lemons)

2 tablespoon grated lemon peel

Directions

To get best juice from lemons, roll firmly in counter before cutting in half. (This is a great part to let little people do!)

To make simple syrup, dissolve sugar in saucepan in boiling water. Cool. Add simple syrup, lemon juice and peel to mason jar and mix well. Screw lid on jar and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Yield: 5-1/2 cups syrup (number of batches varies depending on concentration of lemonade).